Stock fitting machine



May 21, 1940. J M, BARBER 2,201,283

STOCK FITTING MACHINE Filed Dec. 1, 1938 Patented May 21, 1940 UNITED STATES STOCK FITTING MACHINE James M. Barber, Lynn, Mass., assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation,

Borough of Flemington, N. 1., a corporation of New Jersey Application December 1, 1938, Serial No. 243,419

8 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in stock fitting machines and is herein illustrated in a machine for reducing the shanks of soles to prepare them for attachment to shoes.

A type of stock fitting machines commonly .used for operating upon soles comprises a work support, a knife arranged to operate upon a sole on the work support, and a presser foot mounted on a displaceable head for pressing the sole against the support close to the point where the cut is being made thereby to hold the work against heightwise movement to insure a smooth cut. These machines depend upon movement of the displaceable head to take care of local variap tions of surface contour in the portion of the sole passing beneath the presser foot and, while this mounting for the presser foot is generally satisfactory, difficulties are encountered when these machines operate upon soles having high spots or an abruptly sloped marginal surface as the presser foot cannot tilt sharply to adapt itself to abrupt changes in the surface of a sole passing beneath it.

An example of these operating difficulties is presented when the shank of an outer sole of the type disclosed in the United States Letters Patent No. 2,063,186, granted December 8, 1936, on an application filed in the name of G. H. Nichols, is being reduced. Soles of this type have an elevated portion in the forepart which is formed with sloping sides, the slope at the rear of the elevated portion extending beyond the ball line of the sole. As the shank reducing cut commonly extends to the ball line, the presser foot Which precedes the reducing knife will ride up on the rear slope as the knife approaches the ball line and, as the presser foot cannot tilt sufficiently to accommodate itself to the marginal slope, only one corner of the presser foot will be in contact with the sloping face of the sole. This will result in the presser foot losing part of its control over the sole, and, furthermore, as the shank reducing cut is customarily made in the relatively soft flesh surface, the presser foot will frequently gouge a groove in the sloping surface.

It is an object of this invention to overcome the above difficulties. This is accomplished in the illustrated machine by tiltably mounting the feed wheel so that it can move both with and independently of the machine head and thereby adapt'itself to local irregularities of the surface contour of a sole passing under it. In the illustrated embodiment of this invention, the feed wheel is positioned immediately ahead of the knife so that it will act as, and take the place of,

the usual presser foot. Another advantage of placing the feed wheel in this location is that, by virtue of its position in front of the knife, it will apply pressure to the work in line with the resistance offered by the knife and thus substantially eliminate the sole distorting eccentric stresses developed in the operation of many of the present machines wherein the feed wheel is laterally offset from the end of the knife.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing and will be pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a portion of the head of a stock fitting machine embodying this invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along line l'I--II of Fig. 1 looking inthe direction of the arrows, and

Fig. 3 is an end elevation of the machine head shown in Fig. 1.

This invention is illustrated in a machine of the type disclosed in the U. S. Patent No. 1,029,009 granted June 11, 1912, on an application filed by J. J. Gillespie. The illustrated machine comprises a base l2 in which is rotatably mounted a smooth wheel l4 that acts as a work support and also assists in feeding soles past a knife l6 (Fig. 2) which is mounted in a tool holder I! on the base I2. The knife [6 is arranged to cut a bevel in the shank section of a sole on the wheel M, the width of this cut being controlled by an edge gage l8 which is adjustably mounted on the base I2. Pivoted to the base I2 is a machine head 20 which is urged downwardly toward the base by a spring 22, said spring acting upon a rod 24 connected to the head 20. The structure so far described'is illustrated in the above mentioned patent to Gillespie No. 1,029,009 to which reference may be had for a more detailed description of the same.

The work is fed past the knife 16 by a wide feed wheel 26 which extends across the face of the knife and is mounted in the head 20 with its longitudinal axis substantially parallel to the cutting edge of the knife l6 (Fig. 2) so that the resistance which the knife offers to the passage of the work will be opposed by feeding pressure from that portion of the feed wheel which is opposite to the edge of the knife. The force required to feed the Work past the knife in the illustrated machine is minimized as the feed wheel 26 also functions as and takes the place of the customary presser foot thereby eliminating the usual friction between the presser foot and the work. The feed wheel 26 is of relatively small diameter so that it can belocated close to the cutting edge of the knife l8 where it can most effectively act to prevent heightwise movement of the work in the area in which the cut is being made.

The feed wheel 26 is tiltably mounted on the pivoted machine head 20 so that it can move both with the head and independently of the head, in response tolocal variations of the surface contour of the portion of a sole passing beneath it and thereby conform to those variations. wheelZG is provided with a pair of trunnions 28 and 30 (Fig. 2) which are received in arms 32 and 34 that extend downwardlyfrom the head 20 p on either side of the smooth wheel 14. As is best shown in Fig. 2, the trunnion 28 is received in a cone-shaped opening 36 in the arm 32 while the trunnion 30 is received in a slot 38 (Fig. 1) in the arm 34 so that it can move heightwise in this slot in response to local irregularities in the surface contour of a sole passing beneath the feed wheel 26. The trunnion 3B is urged downwardly against the bottom ofthe slot 38 by a spring Gil (Fig. l) which surrounds the trunnion 30 and is in abutting engagement with a shoulder 42 in the arm 3 3. Ihe spring ill is of such strength that it will resist the downward pull of the spring 22 when all, or substantially the greatest portion, of the feed wheel 23 is in engagement with the work, but will collapse and allow the wheel to tilt about the cone-shaped opening 36 as a center when the pressure is localized as will happen when the wheel passes were high spot on the sole or encounters a sloped marginal surface where only one end of the wheel is in engagement with the surface.

The feed wheel 2% is driven by a shaft 4 3 that is carried by the head 29, the shaft'being connected to the feed wheel 26 by a gear train which consists of a gear t6 mounted on the shaft id vHS (Fig. 3), an idler 48 mounted on the plate 34, and a second gear 50 mounted on the end of the trunnion 3 .3 which is connected to the feed wheel 26. The wheel It is rotated in unison with and in the opposite direction to that of the wheel 25 by a shaft 52 which is connected to a source of power that is common to both it andto the shaft 44 that drives the feed wheel 26. The mechanism for driving the shafts Mi and 52 is similar to that shown in the above mentioned patent to Gillespie No. 1,029,009 for driving the corresponding shafts in the patented machine.

The operation of the machine is as follows: A sole is placed between the Wheels Hi and 26 and the operation of the machine is initiated in the usual manner. When the feed wheel 26 passes over a high spot or a beveled surface or other local irregularity in the surface of the sole, the spring All which holds the trunnion 36 in the bottom of the slot 38 will collapse allowing the feed wheel 26 to tilt about the cone-shaped opening 36 as a center and thereby maintain contact with the sole throughout all or a substantial portion of its length. Due to the arrangement of the feed wheel with its axis parallel to the cutting edge of the knife i6 and to the fact that it is coextensive with the cutting edge of the knife, the force exerted on the sole by that portion of the feed wheel which is opposite to the knife will act di- The feed chines of this type wherein the feed wheel is located beyond the end of the knife.

Having thus described my invention, what I.

claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a sole fitting machine having a displaceable head, a work support, a knife arranged to operate upon a work piece on the work support,

feed wheel arranged to engage the marginal por-,

tion of'a sole ahead of the knife and to feed the sole past the knife, said feed wheel being tiltably mounted whereby it can accommodate itself to changesin the shape of the marginal portion of a sole passing beneath it. I

3. A sole fitting machine comprising a base section and a head section which are arranged for movementrelatively to one another, and a pair of rolls mounted one in each section and arranged to feed a sole through the machine, one of said rolls being tiltably mounted in it's section whereby said roll can move independently of its section to accommodate itself to changes in the portion of a sole passing between the rolls.

4. In a sole fitting machine having a pivoted head, a work support, a knife arranged to operate upon a work piece on the work support, and a driven feed wheel on said pivoted head arranged to feed the work on the work support past the knife, said feed wheel being tiltably mounted on the pivoted head whereby it can move both with and relatively to the head.

5. A sole fitting machine comprising a base and a head movable relatively to one another, a

, tion with the Work supporting roll, one of said rolls being tiltably mounted whereby it can accommodate itself to variations in the thickness of the portion. of a sole passing between the rolls, and means for driving both of said rolls.

6. A sole fitting machine comprising a base having a work supporting roll, a head on the base having a pair of depending arms adjacent to said work. supporting roll, and a feed roll mounted in said arms in cooperative relation with the work supporting roll, one end ofthe feed roll being loosely mounted in one of the arms and the other end being received in a slot in the other arm, whereby said feed roll can accommodate itself to variations in the shape of a work piece passing between therolls.

7. In a sole fitting machine having a displaceable head, a work support, a knife arranged to operate on a work piece on said work support, and a feed wheel of substantially the length of the knifelocated ahead of the knife in the direction of feed whereby, the work is forced against the knife with a pressure that is substantially colinear to the resistance offered by the knife,

said feed roll being tiltably mounted in the displaceable head whereby it can accommodate itself to variations of surface contour in a sole passing between it and the work support by movement both with and independently of the displaceable.

head.

8. A solefitting machine comprising a work support, a knife arranged to operate on a work wheel being of relatively small diameter whereby piece on the work support, and a tiltably mountit may be located closely adjacent to the edge of ed wide driven feed wheel for feeding the work the knife and support the work in the vicinity of past the knife arranged with its axis extending the point where the cut is being made by the 5 substantially parallel to the cutting edge of the knife.

knife and located immediately ahead of the knife JAMES M. BARBER.

in the direction of the feed, said driven feed 

